Brasil Foods, Liverpool, MPX, Petrobras, TAM: Latin America Equity Preview

The following companies may have unusual price changes in Latin American trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and share prices reflect the previous close.

The MSCI Latin America Index fell 1.1 percent to 3,672.76.

Brazil

BRF - Brasil Foods SA (BRFS3) (BRFS3 BS): The world’s largest poultry exporter said it’s in negotiations to buy some pork assets in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state from Doux Frangosul SA, according to a regulatory filing yesterday. The shares fell 2.1 percent to 32.25 reais.

HRT Participacoes em Petroleo SA (HRTP3) (HRTP3 BS): A Brazilian oil exploration company found traces of oil and gas in an onshore well in the SOL-T-170 block of Brazil’s Solimoes Basin. The discovery in well 1HRT1AM hasn’t yet been declared commercially viable, according to a posting on the website of Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency. The shares climbed 1.4 percent to 960 reais.

MPX Energia SA (MPXE3) (MPXE3 BS): The energy company controlled by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista said it’s targeting China as the “main market” for the coal it will produce in Colombia. Utilities in China, India, South Korea and the rest of Asia likely will buy half of MPX’s coal from Colombia, Gustavo Gomes, the company’s chief operating officer for mining and gas, said yesterday in an interview. The stock declined 1.3 percent to 37.40 reais.

Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) (PETR4 BS): The state-controlled oil company will connect one or two new production wells to the offshore Lula oil field this year and reach 90,000 barrels a day of production in 2012, Mauro Yuji Hayashi, a pre-salt manager at Petrobras, told reporters yesterday in Rio de Janeiro. The shares fell 1 percent to 20.60 reais.

TAM SA (TAMM4) (TAMM4 BS): The Brazilian airliner said that demand for domestic flights rose 0.9 percent in August from a year earlier, while demand for international flights increased 8.3 percent, according to an e-mailed statement. The shares rose 2.5 percent to 36.66 reais.

Mexico

Retailers: Mexico’s economy will grow 3.85 percent this year, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Citigroup Inc.’s Banamex unit. The country will also release retail sales figures today.

Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB (WALMEXV MM), Latin America’s largest retailer, dropped 0.9 percent to 32.10 pesos. El Puerto de Liverpool SAB (LIVEPOLC MM), the Mexican luxury-goods retailer, fell 2.2 percent to 88.97 pesos. Grupo Elektra SAB (ELEKTRA* MM), the retail and banking company controlled by billionaire Ricardo Salinas, fell 7.1 percent to 1,021.05 pesos.

To contact the reporter on this story: Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Papadopoulos at papadopoulos@bloomberg.net